1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clamping and guide assembly particularly useful for securing workpieces and guiding hand tools.
2. Brief Statement of the Prior Art
It is often difficult to secure a workpiece when sawing, routing or otherwise treating the workpiece. In a typical workshop application, a wide variety of sizes and shapes of boards and construction projects is encountered. The workpiece can be a relatively small board or can be a large bulky box and it is often necessary to secure the workpiece and position a tool guide on the workpiece to guide a saw, router, grinder and the like. It is often necessary to change tools while working on a single piece or a multiple of pieces, e.g., to use a saw for cutoff work and a router for edging, panel raising, groving, rabbeting or dadoing.
Various devices have been suggested as jigs or clamps and these have been provided with various slider members which serve to guide a work tool. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,118 discloses a jig having a fence with a bridge and separate or individual clamps to secure a board to the assembly. The clamps of this device function independently of any tool guide and can accept workpieces of only limited thicknesses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,731 discloses a router guide assembly with a clamp for securing a board. This assembly utilizes the guide rails which slideably receive a plate to which is fixedly secured a tool such as a router. This device can accommodate workpieces of limited thicknesses and the tools cannot be easily interchanged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,390 also discloses a clamping device for securing a workpiece of limited thickness in association with a guide to which is fixedly secured a hand tool such as a router or saw. Another clamping device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,450,001. This device, too, can only hold workpieces of very limited thicknesses and requires that the work tool be fixedly secured to a slider member. Thus, one cannot readily interchange the tools.